Stacking the Shelves, End of Exams and Loony Blurbs

THIS WEEK:

– I had my studies of religion, society and culture, extension English and legal studies exams. Go me for doing pretty much all essay subjects. Over the past two weeks I’ve hand-written probably more than 60 pages – and that’s not including my study notes! But they are all over now, thank goodness.

– Which means I am on school holidays!!

– I plan to do lots of reading, writing and eating. And hopefully I’ll finished Wanderland. Plus I do have some homework to do. Yay.

– I’m at my dad’s right now, and guess what I mostly packed in my backpack? That’s right. Books.

– I’m also going to my grandparents’ for a few days, from Monday to Thursday, which means I won’t be hanging around the interwebs. But I’ve got posts scheduled to keep you all entertained, and Thursday is the first time I’m hosting Loony Blurbs!! YAY, I’M SO EXCITED.

– And last on the news front (though it’s not news to me), my cat is adorable. Just thought you should know. Although I did already share this picture on Twitter:

– This week I’m also stacking the shelves.

Stacking the Shelves is a book meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. It’s all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.

The Books…and a cat

Good old Princess is really intrigued by my books. Also, in the second picture you can see my Fault in Our Stars cushion peeping out the top.

Zac and Mia by A. J. Betts – I have been meaning to pick this up for aaaages, and luckily my school library had a copy. This was my present for finishing my society and culture exam.

Preloved by Shirley Marr – because Cait from Notebook Sisters has said awesome things about this author. Plus, it has references from The Princess Bride, apparently?? SO IN.

The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas – I AM SLIGHTLY WORRIED THAT MY FEELS WILL BE DESTROYED BY THIS BOOK. But excited, too. So I’m a sadist. Lovely.

Pandora Jones: Admission by Barry Jonsberg – I got the second book for review, and so of course I have to read the first one! Plus, I loved My Life as An Alphabet by the same author.

Books Read Since Last Week

Apple and Rain was absolutely amazing and I loved it.

Angelfall was…not good. I didn’t like it. Which is disappointing. It just wasn’t my thing, you know? And way too gory for me. *shudders* Nobody warned me about that bit!

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld. Dude. Dude, seriously, this novel is so clever it’s crazy. I seriously loved this one so much and I actually appear to be in the minority – it’s got quite a few negative reviews but MINE WILL VERY DEFINITELY BE POSITIVE.

Currently Reading

I started Love Letters to the Dead and couldn’t get into it (which was when I started Afterworlds), but I’ll come back to it soon.

And every holidays I read a Harry Potter book, because…do I really need a reason?

Reading Next

I really think I will enjoy this one. ALSO, how cool are the other covers for it???? Seriously, I am jealous of how awesome they are:

Gif of the Week

I needed two because LOOK AT THE KITTY. And Abed is awesome, of course.

Posts on the Blog

Monday: I reviewed The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet – long story short, the videos are better

Extension English is just…extra English, basically. So we studied speculative fiction which was fantastic 🙂 and legal studies is pretty self-explanatory, just learning about the legal system, rights, crime…stuff like that!

OMG can’t wait for Loony Blurbs!!! *is so frickin pumped*
Your cats are adorable. One of them looks like mine. 🙂 She likes my books, too. And she meows a TON. She’s a chatty catty. 😛 We call her Mattie the Chatty Catty, and Mattie is her actual name!
Going now.

And Cait ALWAYS has good recommendations…except that I recommend Angelfall as well, lol. I’m sorry about that gory bit! But you can’t SAY much about it without spoilers, right?! The ending though… I have an incredibly sad face at the thought of it. But YAY! You like Afterworlds! I had pretty much crossed it off my tbr, because of all the negative reviews, but obviously now I’m super curious. Plus the writer writing about writing thing always drags me in.
I think you made wise packing choices there.
I borrowed Zac & Mia from the library too! *hi fives* I don’t even know what it’s about but I’M EXCITED.

Of COURSE you do. But I’m more inclined to like the contemporary recs than speculative, of course. Angelfall would have delighted anyone else, but…*shudders* Just couldn’t do it.

Afterworlds is so great!! Everyone else seems to like the story-within-the-story POV best, but I loved Darcy’s because DUH she’s a writer. A teen writer. Of course I was going to like it. It’s very meta and satirical 😛

Noooo i’m totally sad that you didn’t enjoy Angelfall! Oh well, better luck next time. so happy to hear that you loved Afterworlds, I can’t wait to read it now! So excited you are reading Zac & Mia, it’s a really awesome book 🙂

I LOVE YOUR CAT. I wish I had one too! So fluffy and gorgeous.

The Assassin’s Blade, all I can say is prepare for the feels! IT WIILL TEAR yoU APART. But you will enjoy it.

Congrats on finishing exams! It’s so great to be on holidays – there’s so much more time to read! I can’t wait to read Afterworlds since it looks amazing! I’ve been wanting to read Zac and Mia for aaages so I’m looking forward to seeing what you think 🙂 And OF COURSE an excuse is *never* needed to re-read Harry Potter.

Thank you!! And you as well 😀 exams are awesome. More time to read AND write (finishing Wanderland soon, thank goodness). I’ve been wanting to read Zac and Mia for the longest time as well – there’s just always something else I want to pick up at the library!

How many cats do you have Em, it seems as though you’ve almost got one for each day of the week 😀 I’m a dog person, and just have the one. I never had cats growing up. They’re super cute though. Hooray for school holidays! After all that schooling, you deserve a well earned break. So sorry that you didn’t enjoy Angelfall, when I think about it, it IS pretty gruesome isn’t it. Here’s to an awesome week of reading and relaxing. Can’t wait for you to finish Wanderland ❤

Yep, seven cats. HAHA no only three. Although I’d happily trade the two dogs for some more cats. Okay, maybe not. My mother would shoot me. I think Angelfall is probbbbbably the most gruesome book I’ve read. Clearly I haven’t read many gruesome books – I’m more the fluffy contemporary type 😛

Have fun on school holidays! You got some great books there. I loved Zac and Mia and hope you do to (Though I hadn’t read The fault in our Stars before I read this so I wasn’t comparing.) And I can’t wait to get my hands on Afterworlds I have a feeling I will love it.

THOSE GIFS. ❤ Also, congratulations on finishing all of your exams – I know how good that feels – and enjoy your holidays! ❤ I'm sorry you didn't like Angelfall. I read 130ish pages back in March(?), and put it down because I just couldn't get into it…as for Afterworlds, I'm more into it than I was the other day when we were talking on Twitter, but still not into it into it…but reading your comment, I’ll give it to page 300 to entice me. (I’m currently on page 209.) I have to get Zac & Mia too (the covers are so nice – I love the US hardcover especially, because of the spine) and since Cait mentioned Shirley Marr, I’ve wanted to read something of hers too.

I love gifs. Can you tell? Ahhhh yes finishing exams is such a great feeling. HEY another person who didn’t like Angelfall!! How exciting. I’m glad I’m not the only one. As for Afterworlds, I’ve heard from a LOT of people that it’s a bit meh, which was why I was kind of dubious, but I really connected with the writing/publishing side of things 🙂

Yep, we all obey Cait of course. Her suggestions have always been awesome.

Enjoy your last holidays before HSC year, Emily! Muahahahah. *steeples fingers evily* Only kidding. Seriously, though, have fun reading your awesome pile of books. 😀 I think you’ll like Zac and Mia — I did, and considering I don’t like that much contemporary, that’s saying something! 😉 And I hope you like The Assassin’s Blade, too. Angelfall was SUCH a disappointment for me as well. It wasn’t that the gore bothered me much, but it just didn’t live up to the hype that surrounded it for me. =/

This post is also making me really want to re-read the entire Harry Potter series. Funny that. 😉

Gee, THANKS, Kara. I’m going to be in year twelve in like two weeks. THAT IS TERRIFYING. I think I’ll like Zac and Mia too – I’m always much more likely to enjoy it if it’s a contemporary, of course 🙂 Yeah, Angelfall was just…not great. But for different reasons to you 😛

CONGRATULATIONS! And I hope you have an awesome holiday! And that you have a great time visiting your grandparents! Basically, I hope you just enjoy the heck out of life. 🙂

Also, I’m super glad to hear that you enjoyed AFTERWORLDS; I thought it sounded clever and interesting and appealing, too, so I was a little bummed by the not-so-great reviews. It’s encouraging to find someone who’s loved it!

Aw! I’m so disappointed that you didn’t like Angelfall! I feel so bad because I was suggesting this one to you and everyone like crazy! But yeah. I completely forgot about the gore. And that and the fast speed was one of the reasons I liked it. (I’m a very gory person. My books are sort of violent.) Also, I’ve been having my eyes on Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld forever. (Actually since I heard about everyone talking about it after BEA.) I’m so glad you enjoy it. And your cat is adorable.

Congrats on doing your exams! I chose Soceity & Culture thinking that it was probably gonna be easy.., I didn’t realise that there were essays involved. D: I want to do Ext 1 English but that’s a lot of essays I’d have to write. ==’
I hope you enjoy all your new books as much as your cat does. 😉